A cool breeze was blowing.
After Hoshi had calmed down, Seiji attentively listened to his story in silence.
...
The day of the incident with Hoshi's sisters.
Last Monday, exactly one week ago, Hoshi Amami had been contemplating things after he'd separated from Seigo Harano.
He was unable to make a decision between his sisters and his Senpai, whom he greatly admired.
Hoshi was unable to believe that his sisters had such wicked personalities as Seiji had stated. On the other hand, there was no way for him to ignore the stern warning his Senpai had just given him about them.
He was stuck with his frustrations even after school ended.
He stayed in the club rooms as late as possible until Hoshi was forced to go home.
When he returned home, Rion and Kotomi Amami acted like nothing had happened at all.
In front of their parents, the twin sisters acted just like they always did. They were laughing, teasing him, and speaking cutely.
Dinnertime with his family seemed warm and comforting on the surface.
But the more it seemed to appear this way, the more Hoshi felt it was abnormal.
His sisters had been looked down on to such a degree and insulted humiliatingly. Was it possible for them to act just like normal as if nothing had happened?
Impossible.
Hoshi's heart was telling him that.
However, he ignored it.
Perhaps his sisters were actually magnanimous? He wanted to believe that, just like how he wanted to believe that the warm dinner scene in front of him right now was real.
However...
"I have something to announce." His father spoke up. "My company is giving me a new project to work on. For the next few nights I'm going to work overtime at the company, and sleep there instead of returning home."
Overtime?
Hoshi had his doubts.
His father was indeed busy with work, but suddenly working overtime for several nights in a row...
Before he could ask, his mother spoke up as well.
"Actually, I have an announcement as well. There's something happening at Grandpa's place that I need to go over and take care of, so I need to leave home for a few days as well."
Mother was leaving as well!?
Hoshi was no longer doubtful; he was now shocked.
Why?
Was it all just a coincidence!?
His mind was thrown into chaos.
At this moment, he exchanged glances with his sisters sitting across from him.
Rion and Kotomi had light smiles on their faces.
Their seemingly innocuous smiles seemed to turn into masks that were concealing something icy cold underneath!
Hoshi Amami froze solid.
Although it was just for a short moment, and perhaps it was merely a hallucination caused by the lighting, the image he had just witnessed gave him a huge impact, and he etched the scene deep into his heart.
His parents were still speaking, but Hoshi was no longer listening.
By the time he regained his senses, he noticed that his parents were jovially looking at his twin sisters. In fact, his parents seemed to be smiling widely; it almost seemed as if they were sucking up to his sisters.
"Got it, Mom, Dad~"
"We'll take good care of the house and our brother~"
The sisters chuckled as they happily promised their parents to take care of him.
What a beautiful scene it was.
But Hoshi, who had been ignored by his parents, suddenly felt the urge to vomit as he saw his sisters smiling at him!
Disgusting.
Why... did he feel that way?
Hoshi suddenly remembered the sentence that he'd heard from Senpai earlier today: "I want to vomit just at the sight of people like you!!!"
Senpai... Seigo Harano Senpai.
Were you feeling like this... at that moment!?
"Those who avoid the truth will eventually end up being swallowed by it."
That was another sentence from Senpai.
Hoshi finally understood what he'd meant.
This was what he had been unconsciously avoiding and escaping.
He could have recognized it for what it was.
He could have discovered it long ago!
As the closest person to his sisters... being their younger brother, he should have seen his sisters for who they really were!
But he didn't.
And that was why, just as Senpai had warned him, he was completely swallowed up by the ugly truth that night.
...
Over the course of one week.
From Monday night to Sunday night, Hoshi Amami had constantly been suffering from Rion and Kotomi's torture.
His body wasn't particularly injured, but his mental state was suffering tremendously!
His parents weren't home... no, Seiji was certain that Hoshi's sisters had something to do with that.
Those twins even had their parents under their control!
This was definitely something that the "twin witches" would do and had the ability to do.
Perhaps it sounded ridiculous that two teenagers could control adults like this, but Seiji knew that it wasn't impossible.
As long as you gave the "teenagers" the outer appearance of beautiful girls, it would be easy for people to lower their guards. It would be quite easy for the extortionists the twins were to understand and make use of this.
Since the extortionists were their own children, not to mention children who seemed to behave so excellently, this gave their parents the... necessary excuse to not oppose their wishes seriously and even spoil them to such an extent.
Although Seiji didn't know when such a thing began, he guessed that this type of twisted relationship in Hoshi's family must have existed for a long period of time already, being one of the important factors in causing those twins to become like that... Perhaps it was even the main cause.
After all, as kids who controlled their parents, the twisted enjoyment they probably received out of it would be tremendously fearsome!
The twins might have developed twisted personalities while they were young and become abnormal before their mental states matured.
Seiji was no psychologist.
While his experience from a previous life allowed him to see through those sisters as well as make some educated guesses about their personalities, he was unable to completely analyze and understand them.
Nor did he want to.
After all, neither the reason behind the twins' twisted personality nor the Amami family's fall into depravity had anything to do with him.
All he did was promise Hoshi Amami that he would save him.
That was why Seiji was clear about his next course of action.
He asked for Hoshi's cell phone and made a call.
It was already class time currently, and there were a few other students around, but that didn't interfere with him making his call in a corner of the roof.
Rion and Kotomi Amami: beautiful twins as well as unmistakable... witches.
The call connected.
"Our dear brother, your sisters were just looking for you~"
Seiji heard the low sound of cackling from Hoshi's cell phone.
"It's been an entire week without being able to see that Senpai you respect so much; you must be so lonely, right?"
"Go ahead and see him during lunch break—but you can only say what we tell you to say."
"'Senpai is a huge liar—I hate you!' ...You absolutely have to say this to him~"
"It's just a little prank, and if you don't do this, the 'punishment' you receive tonight will double, and your Senpai that you respect so much will undergo even worse pranks than you~"
Seiji was speechless after hearing this phone call.
Heh heh, he understood the situation now.
This phone call had been the breaking point for Hoshi.
He began chuckling coldly.
"What an interesting prank, you two."
His tone of voice was just as icy as his laughter.
This caused the cackling sounds on the other side of the call to disappear.
"But I still don't think it's interesting enough. What do you think about meeting up and doing something even more interesting? Rion Amami, Kotomi Amami... you two enjoy playing!? I, Seigo Harano, will be more than happy... to accompany you!!!"